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Selected Verse: Exodus 4:19 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ex 4:19	Strong Concordance	And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872] in Midian [04080], Go [03212], return [07725] into Egypt [04714]: for all the men [0582] are dead [04191] which sought [01245] thy life [05315].
	King James	And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
all the men are dead which sought thy life--The death of the Egyptian monarch took place in the four hundred and twenty-ninth year of the Hebrew sojourn in that land, and that event, according to the law of Egypt, took off his proscription of Moses, if it had been publicly issued.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

all the men are dead which sought thy life--The death of the Egyptian monarch took place in the four hundred and twenty-ninth year of the Hebrew sojourn in that land, and that event, according to the law of Egypt, took off his proscription of Moses, if it had been publicly issued.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Return of Moses to Egypt. - Exo 4:19-23. On leaving Midian, Moses received another communication from God with reference to his mission to Pharaoh. The word of Jehovah, in Exo 4:19, is not to be regarded as a summary of the previous revelation, in which case ויּאמר would be a pluperfect, nor as the account of another writer, who placed the summons to return to Egypt not in Sinai but in Midian. It is not a fact that the departure of Moses is given in Exo 4:18; all that is stated there is, that Jethro consented to Moses' decision to return to Egypt. It was not till after this consent that Moses was able to prepare for the journey. During these preparations God appeared to him in Midian, and encouraged him to return, by informing him that all the men who had sought his life, i.e., Pharaoh and the relatives of the Egyptian whom he had slain, were now dead. Exo 4:20 Moses then set out upon his journey, with his wife and sons. בּניו is not to be altered into בּנו, as Knobel supposes, notwithstanding the fact that the birth of only one son has hitherto been mentioned (Exo 2:22); for neither there, nor in this passage (Exo 4:25), is he described as the only son. The wife and sons, who were still young, he placed upon the ass (the one taken for the purpose), whilst he himself went on foot with "the staff of God" - as the staff was called with which he was to perform the divine miracles (Exo 4:17) - in his hand. Poor as his outward appearance might be, he had in his hand the staff before which the pride of Pharaoh and all his might would have to bow. Exo 4:21 "In thy going (returning) to Egypt, behold, all the wonders which I have put into thy hand, thou doest them before Pharaoh." מופת, τὸ τέρας, portentum, is any object (natural event, thing, or person) of significance which surpasses expectation or the ordinary course of nature, and excites wonder in consequence. It is frequently connected with אות, σημεῖον, a sign (Deu 4:34; Deu 6:22; Deu 7:19, etc.), and embraces the idea of אות within itself, i.e., wonder-sign. The expression, "all those wonders," does not refer merely to the three signs mentioned in Exo 4:2-9, but to all the miracles which were to be performed by Moses with the staff in the presence of Pharaoh, and which, though not named, were put into his hand potentially along with the staff. - But all the miracles would not induce Pharaoh to let Israel go, for Jehovah would harden his heart. את־לבּו אחזּק אני, lit., I will make his heart firm, so that it will not move, his feelings and attitude towards Israel will not change. For אחזּק אני or וחזּקתּי (Exo 14:4) and מחזּק אני (Exo 14:17), we find אקשׁה אני in Exo 7:3, "I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, or unfeeling;" and in Exo 10:1, הכבּדתּי אני "I have made his heart heavy," i.e., obtuse, or insensible to impressions or divine influences. These three words are expressive of the hardening of the heart. The hardening of Pharaoh is ascribed to God, not only in the passages just quoted, but also in Exo 9:12; Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10; Exo 14:8; that is to say, ten times in all; and that not merely as foreknown or foretold by Jehovah, but as caused and effected by Him. In the last five passages it is invariably stated that "Jehovah hardened (יהזּק) Pharaoh's heart." But it is also stated just as often, viz., ten times, that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, or made it heavy or firm; e.g., in Exo 7:13, Exo 7:22; Exo 8:15; Exo 9:35, לב ויּחזק "and Pharaoh's heart was (or became) hard;" Exo 7:14, לב כּבד "Pharaoh's heart was heavy;" in Exo 9:7, ל יכבּד; in Exo 8:11, Exo 8:28; Exo 9:34, את־לבּו ויּכבּד or והכבּד; in Exo 13:15, פ הקשׁה כּי "for Pharaoh made his heart hard." According to this, the hardening of Pharaoh was quite as much his own act as the decree of God. But if, in order to determine the precise relation of the divine to the human causality, we look more carefully at the two classes of expressions, we shall find that not only in connection with the first sign, by which Moses and Aaron were to show their credentials as the messengers of Jehovah, sent with the demand that he would let the people of Israel go (Exo 7:13-14), but after the first five penal miracles, the hardening is invariably represented as his own. After every one of these miracles, it is stated that Pharaoh's heart was firm, or dull, i.e., insensible to the voice of God, and unaffected by the miracles performed before his eyes, and the judgments of God suspended over him and his kingdom, and he did not listen to them (to Moses and Aaron with their demand), or let the people go (Exo 7:22; Exo 8:8, Exo 8:15, Exo 8:28; Exo 9:7). It is not till after the sixth plague that it is stated that Jehovah made the heart of Pharaoh firm (Exo 9:12). At the seventh the statement is repeated, that "Pharaoh made his heart heavy" (Exo 9:34-35); but the continued refusal on the part of Pharaoh after the eighth and ninth (Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27) and his resolution to follow the Israelites and bring them back again, are attributed to the hardening of his heart by Jehovah (Exo 14:8, cf. Exo 14:4 and Exo 14:17). This hardening of his own heart was manifested first of all in the fact, that he paid not attention to the demand of Jehovah addressed to him through Moses, and would not let Israel go; and that not only at the commencement, so long as the Egyptian magicians imitated the signs performed by Moses and Aaron (though at the very first sign the rods of the magicians, when turned into serpents, were swallowed by Aaron's, Exo 7:12-13), but even when the magicians themselves acknowledged, "This is the finger of God" (Exo 8:19). It was also continued after the fourth and fifth plagues, when a distinction was made between the Egyptians and the Israelites, and the latter were exempted from the plagues, - a fact of which the king took care to convince himself (Exo 9:7). And it was exhibited still further in his breaking his promise, that he would let Israel go if Moses and Aaron would obtain from Jehovah the removal of the plague, and in the fact, that even after he had been obliged to confess, "I have sinned, Jehovah is the righteous one, I and my people are unrighteous" (Exo 9:27), he sinned again, as soon as breathing-time was given him, and would not let the people go (Exo 9:34-35). Thus Pharaoh would not bend his self-will to the will of God, even after he had discerned the finger of God and the omnipotence of Jehovah in the plagues suspended over him and his nation; he would not withdraw his haughty refusal, notwithstanding the fact that he was obliged to acknowledge that it was sin against Jehovah. Looked at from this side, the hardening was a fruit of sin, a consequence of that self-will, high-mindedness, and pride which flow from sin, and a continuous and ever increasing abuse of that freedom of the will which is innate in man, and which involves the possibility of obstinate resistance to the word and chastisement of God even until death. As the freedom of the will has its fixed limits in the unconditional dependence of the creature upon the Creator, so the sinner may resist the will of God as long as he lives. But such resistance plunges him into destruction, and is followed inevitably by death and damnation. God never allows any man to scoff at Him. Whoever will not suffer himself to be led, by the kindness and earnestness of the divine admonitions, to repentance and humble submission to the will of God, must inevitably perish, and by his destruction subserve the glory of God, and the manifestation of the holiness, righteousness, and omnipotence of Jehovah. But God not only permits a man to harden himself; He also produces obduracy, and suspends this sentence over the impenitent. Not as though God took pleasure in the death of the wicked! No; God desires that the wicked should repent of his evil way and live (Eze 33:11); and He desires this most earnestly, for "He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (Ti1 2:4, cf. Pe2 3:9). As God causes His earthly sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust (Mat 5:45), so He causes His sun of grace to shine upon all sinners, to lead them to life and salvation. But as the earthly sun produces different effects upon the earth, according to the nature of the soil upon which it shines, so the influence of the divine sun of grace manifests itself in different ways upon the human heart, according to its moral condition. (Note: "The sun, by the force of its heat, moistens the wax and dries the clay, softening the one and hardening the other; and as this produces opposite effects by the same power, so, through the long-suffering of God, which reaches to all, some receive good and others evil, some are softened and others hardened." - (Theodoret, quaest. 12 in Ex.)) The penitent permit the proofs of divine goodness and grace to lead them to repentance and salvation; but the impenitent harden themselves more and more against the grace of God, and so become ripe for the judgment of damnation. The very same manifestation of the mercy of God leads in the case of the one to salvation and life, and in that of the other to judgment and death, because he hardens himself against that mercy. In this increasing hardness on the part of the impenitent sinner against the mercy that is manifested towards him, there is accomplished the judgment of reprobation, first in God's furnishing the wicked with an opportunity of bringing fully to light the evil inclinations, desires, and thoughts that are in their hearts; and then, according to an invariable law of the moral government of the world, in His rendering the return of the impenitent sinner more and more difficult on account of his continued resistance, and eventually rendering it altogether impossible. It is the curse of sin, that it renders the hard heart harder, and less susceptible to the gracious manifestations of divine love, long-suffering, and patience. In this twofold manner God produces hardness, not only permissive but effective; i.e., not only by giving time and space for the manifestation of human opposition, even to the utmost limits of creaturely freedom, but still more by those continued manifestations of His will which drive the hard heart to such utter obduracy that it is no longer capable of returning, and so giving over the hardened sinner to the judgment of damnation. This is what we find in the case of Pharaoh. After he had hardened his heart against the revealed will of God during the first five plagues, the hardening commenced on the part of Jehovah with the sixth miracle (Exo 9:12), when the omnipotence of God was displayed with such energy that even the Egyptian magicians were covered with the boils, and could no longer stand before Moses (Exo 9:11). And yet, even after this hardening on the part of God, another opportunity was given to the wicked king to repent and change his mind, so that on two other occasions he acknowledged that his resistance was sin, and promised to submit to the will of Jehovah (Exo 9:27., Exo 10:16.). But when at length, even after the seventh plague, he broke his promise to let Israel go, and hardened his heart again as soon as the plague was removed (Exo 9:34-35), Jehovah so hardened Pharaoh's heart that he not only did not let Israel go, but threatened Moses with death if he ever came into his presence again (Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27-28). The hardening was now completed so that he necessarily fell a victim to judgment; though the very first stroke of judgment in the slaying of the first-born was an admonition to consider and return. And it was not till after he had rejected the mercy displayed in this judgment, and manifested a defiant spirit once more, in spite of the words with which he had given Moses and Aaron permission to depart, "Go, and bless me also" (Exo 12:31-32), that God completely hardened his heart, so that he pursued the Israelites with an army, and was overtaken by the judgment of utter destruction. Now, although the hardening of Pharaoh on the part of Jehovah was only the complement of Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart, in the verse before us the former aspect alone is presented, because the principal object was not only to prepare Moses for the opposition which he would meet with from Pharaoh, but also to strengthen his weak faith, and remove at the very outset every cause for questioning and omnipotence of Jehovah. If it was by Jehovah Himself that Pharaoh was hardened, this hardening, which He not only foresaw and predicted by virtue of His omniscience, but produced and inflicted through His omnipotence, could not possibly hinder the performance of His will concerning Israel, but must rather contribute to the realization of His purposes of salvation and the manifestation of His glory (cf. Exo 9:16; Exo 10:2; Exo 14:4, Exo 14:17-18). Exo 4:22-23 In order that Pharaoh might form a true estimate of the solemnity of the divine command, Moses was to make known to him not only the relation of Jehovah to Israel, but also the judgment to which he would be exposed if he refused to let Israel go. The relation in which Israel stood to Jehovah was expressed by God in the words, "Israel is My first-born son." Israel was Jehovah's son by virtue of his election to be the people of possession (Deu 14:1-2). This election began with the call of Abraham to be the father of the nation in which all the families of the earth were to be blessed. On the ground of this promise, which was now to be realized in the seed of Abraham by the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, the nation of Israel is already called Jehovah's "son," although it was through the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai that it was first exalted to be the people of Jehovah's possession out of all the nations (Exo 19:5-6). The divine sonship of Israel was therefore spiritual in its nature: it neither sprang from the fact that God, as the Creator of all nations, was also the Creator, or Begetter, and Father of Israel, nor was it founded, as Baumgarten supposes, upon "the physical generation of Isaac, as having its origin, not in the power of nature, but in the power of grace." The relation of God, as Creator, to man His creature, is never referred to in the Old Testament as that of a father to a son; to say nothing of the fact that the Creator of man is Elohim, and not Jehovah. Wherever Jehovah is called the Father, Begetter, or Creator of Israel (even in Deu 32:18; Jer 2:27; Isa 44:8; Mal 1:6 and Mal 2:10), the fatherhood of God relates to the election of Israel as Jehovah's people of possession. But the election upon which the υἱοθεσία of Israel was founded, is not presented in the aspect of a "begetting through the Spirit;" it is spoken of rather as acquiring or buying (קנה), making (עשׂה), founding or establishing (כּנן, Deu 32:6). Even the expressions, "the Rock that begat thee," "God that bare thee" (Deu 32:18), do not point to the idea of spiritual generation, but are to be understood as referring to the creation; just as in Psa 90:2, where Moses speaks of the mountains as "brought forth" and the earth as "born." The choosing of Israel as the son of God was an adoption flowing from the free grace of God which involved the loving, fatherly treatment of the son, and demanded obedience, reverence, and confidence towards the Father (Mal 1:6). It was this which constituted the very essence of the covenant made by Jehovah with Israel, that He treated it with mercy and love (Hos 11:1; Jer 31:9, Jer 31:20), pitied it as a father pitieth his children (Psa 103:13), chastened it on account of its sins, yet did not withdraw His mercy from it (Sa2 7:14-15; Psa 89:31-35), and trained His son to be a holy nation by the love and severity of paternal discipline. - Still Israel was not only a son, but the "first-born son" of Jehovah. In this title the calling of the heathen is implied. Israel was not to be Jehovah's only son, but simply the first-born, who was peculiarly dear to his Father, and had certain privileges above the rest. Jehovah was about to exalt Israel above all the nations of the earth (Deu 28:1). Now, if Pharaoh would not let Jehovah's first-born son depart, he would pay the penalty in the life of his own first-born (cf. Exo 12:29). In this intense earnestness of the divine command, Moses had a strong support to his faith. If Israel was Jehovah's first-born son, Jehovah could not relinquish him, but must deliver His son from the bondage of Egypt. Exo 4:24-26 But if Moses was to carry out the divine commission with success, he must first of all prove himself to be a faithful servant of Jehovah in his own house. This he was to learn from the occurrence at the inn: an occurrence which has many obscurities on account of the brevity of the narrative, and has received many different interpretations. When Moses was on the way, Jehovah met him at the resting-place (מלון, see Gen 42:27), and sought to kill him. In what manner, is not stated: whether by a sudden seizure with some fatal disease, or, what is more probable, by some act proceeding directly from Himself, which threatened Moses with death. This hostile attitude on the part of God was occasioned by his neglect to circumcise his son; for, as soon as Zipporah cut off (circumcised) the foreskin of her son with a stone, Jehovah let him go. צור = צוּר, a rock, or stone, here a stone knife, with which, according to hereditary custom, the circumcision commanded by Joshua was also performed; not, however, because "stone knives were regarded as less dangerous than those of metal," nor because "for symbolical reasons preference was given to them, as a simple production of nature, over the metal knives that had been prepared by human hands and were applied to daily use." For if the Jews had detected any religious or symbolical meaning in stone, they would never have given it up for iron or steel, but would have retained it, like the Ethiopian tribe of the Alnaii, who used stone knives for that purpose as late as 150 years ago; whereas, in the Talmud, the use of iron or steel knives for the purpose of circumcision is spoken of, as though they were universally employed. Stone knives belong to a time anterior to the manufacture of iron or steel; and wherever they were employed at a later period, this arose from a devoted adherence to the older and simpler custom (see my Commentary on Jos 5:2). From the word "her son," it is evident that Zipporah only circumcised one of the two sons of Moses (Exo 4:20); so that the other, not doubt the elder, had already been circumcised in accordance with the law. Circumcision had been enjoined upon Abraham by Jehovah as a covenant sign for all his descendants; and the sentence of death was pronounced upon any neglect of it, as being a breach of the covenant (Gen 17:14). Although in this passage it is the uncircumcised themselves who are threatened with death, yet in the case of children the punishment fell upon the parents, and first of all upon the father, who had neglected to keep the commandment of God. Now, though Moses had probably omitted circumcision simply from regard to his Midianitish wife, who disliked this operation, he had been guilty of a capital crime, which God could not pass over in the case of one whom He had chosen to be His messenger, to establish His covenant with Israel. Hence He threatened him with death, to bring him to a consciousness of his sin, either by the voice of conscience or by some word which accompanied His attack upon Moses; and also to show him with what earnestness God demanded the keeping of His commandments. Still He did not kill him; for his sin had sprung from weakness of the flesh, from a sinful yielding to his wife, which could both be explained and excused on account of his position in the Midianite's house. That Zipporah's dislike to circumcision had been the cause of the omission, has been justly inferred by commentators from the fact, that on Jehovah's attack upon Moses, she proceeded at once to perform what had been neglected, and, as it seems, with inward repugnance. The expression, "She threw (the foreskin of her son) at his (Moses') feet," points to this (ל הגּיע, as in Isa 25:12). The suffix in רגליו (his feet) cannot refer to the son, not only because such an allusion would give no reasonable sense, but also because the suffix refers to Moses in the immediate context, both before (in המיתו, Exo 4:24) and after (in ממּנּוּ, Exo 4:26); and therefore it is simpler to refer it to Moses here. From this it follows, then, that the words, "a blood-bridegroom art thou to me," were addressed to Moses, and not to the boy. Zipporah calls Moses a blood-bridegroom, "because she had been compelled, as it were, to acquire and purchase him anew as a husband by shedding the blood of her son" (Glass). "Moses had been as good as taken from her by the deadly attack which had been made upon him. She purchased his life by the blood of her son; she received him back, as it were, from the dead, and married him anew; he was, in fact, a bridegroom of blood to her" (Kurtz). This she said, as the historian adds, after God had let Moses, go, למּוּלות, "with reference to the circumcisions." The plural is used quite generally and indefinitely, as Zipporah referred not merely to this one instance, but to circumcision generally. Moses was apparently induced by what had occurred to decide not to take his wife and children with him to Egypt, but to send them back to his father-in-law. We may infer this from the fact, that it was not till after Israel had arrived at Sinai that he brought them to him again (Exo 18:2). Exo 4:27-31 After the removal of the sin, which had excited the threatening wrath of Jehovah, Moses once more received a token of the divine favour in the arrival of Aaron, under the direction of God, to meet him at the Mount of God (Exo 3:1). To Aaron he related all the words of Jehovah, with which He had sent (commissioned) him (שׁלח with a double accusative, as in Sa2 11:22; Jer 42:5), and all the signs which He had commanded him (צוּה also with a double accusative, as in Gen 6:22). Another proof of the favour of God consisted of the believing reception of his mission on the part of the elders and the people of Israel. "The people believed" (ויּאמן) when Aaron communicated to them the words of Jehovah to Moses, and did the signs in their presence. "And when they heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel, and had looked upon their affliction, they bowed and worshipped." (Knobel is wrong in proposing to alter ישׁמעוּ into ישׂמחוּ, according to the Sept. rendering, καὶ ἐχάρη). The faith of the people, and the worship by which their faith was expressed, proved that the promise of the fathers still lived in their hearts. And although this faith did not stand the subsequent test (Exo 5), yet, as the first expression of their feelings, it bore witness to the fact that Israel was willing to follow the call of God.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Return of Moses to Egypt. - Exo 4:19-23. On leaving Midian, Moses received another communication from God with reference to his mission to Pharaoh. The word of Jehovah, in Exo 4:19, is not to be regarded as a summary of the previous revelation, in which case ויּאמר would be a pluperfect, nor as the account of another writer, who placed the summons to return to Egypt not in Sinai but in Midian. It is not a fact that the departure of Moses is given in Exo 4:18; all that is stated there is, that Jethro consented to Moses' decision to return to Egypt. It was not till after this consent that Moses was able to prepare for the journey. During these preparations God appeared to him in Midian, and encouraged him to return, by informing him that all the men who had sought his life, i.e., Pharaoh and the relatives of the Egyptian whom he had slain, were now dead.

Exo 4:20

Moses then set out upon his journey, with his wife and sons. בּניו is not to be altered into בּנו, as Knobel supposes, notwithstanding the fact that the birth of only one son has hitherto been mentioned (Exo 2:22); for neither there, nor in this passage (Exo 4:25), is he described as the only son. The wife and sons, who were still young, he placed upon the ass (the one taken for the purpose), whilst he himself went on foot with "the staff of God" - as the staff was called with which he was to perform the divine miracles (Exo 4:17) - in his hand. Poor as his outward appearance might be, he had in his hand the staff before which the pride of Pharaoh and all his might would have to bow.

Exo 4:21

"In thy going (returning) to Egypt, behold, all the wonders which I have put into thy hand, thou doest them before Pharaoh." מופת, τὸ τέρας, portentum, is any object (natural event, thing, or person) of significance which surpasses expectation or the ordinary course of nature, and excites wonder in consequence. It is frequently connected with אות, σημεῖον, a sign (Deu 4:34; Deu 6:22; Deu 7:19, etc.), and embraces the idea of אות within itself, i.e., wonder-sign. The expression, "all those wonders," does not refer merely to the three signs mentioned in Exo 4:2-9, but to all the miracles which were to be performed by Moses with the staff in the presence of Pharaoh, and which, though not named, were put into his hand potentially along with the staff. - But all the miracles would not induce Pharaoh to let Israel go, for Jehovah would harden his heart. את־לבּו אחזּק אני, lit., I will make his heart firm, so that it will not move, his feelings and attitude towards Israel will not change. For אחזּק אני or וחזּקתּי (Exo 14:4) and מחזּק אני (Exo 14:17), we find אקשׁה אני in Exo 7:3, "I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, or unfeeling;" and in Exo 10:1, הכבּדתּי אני "I have made his heart heavy," i.e., obtuse, or insensible to impressions or divine influences. These three words are expressive of the hardening of the heart.

The hardening of Pharaoh is ascribed to God, not only in the passages just quoted, but also in Exo 9:12; Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10; Exo 14:8; that is to say, ten times in all; and that not merely as foreknown or foretold by Jehovah, but as caused and effected by Him. In the last five passages it is invariably stated that "Jehovah hardened (יהזּק) Pharaoh's heart." But it is also stated just as often, viz., ten times, that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, or made it heavy or firm; e.g., in Exo 7:13, Exo 7:22; Exo 8:15; Exo 9:35, לב ויּחזק "and Pharaoh's heart was (or became) hard;" Exo 7:14, לב כּבד "Pharaoh's heart was heavy;" in Exo 9:7, ל יכבּד; in Exo 8:11, Exo 8:28; Exo 9:34, את־לבּו ויּכבּד or והכבּד; in Exo 13:15, פ הקשׁה כּי "for Pharaoh made his heart hard." According to this, the hardening of Pharaoh was quite as much his own act as the decree of God. But if, in order to determine the precise relation of the divine to the human causality, we look more carefully at the two classes of expressions, we shall find that not only in connection with the first sign, by which Moses and Aaron were to show their credentials as the messengers of Jehovah, sent with the demand that he would let the people of Israel go (Exo 7:13-14), but after the first five penal miracles, the hardening is invariably represented as his own. After every one of these miracles, it is stated that Pharaoh's heart was firm, or dull, i.e., insensible to the voice of God, and unaffected by the miracles performed before his eyes, and the judgments of God suspended over him and his kingdom, and he did not listen to them (to Moses and Aaron with their demand), or let the people go (Exo 7:22; Exo 8:8, Exo 8:15, Exo 8:28; Exo 9:7). It is not till after the sixth plague that it is stated that Jehovah made the heart of Pharaoh firm (Exo 9:12). At the seventh the statement is repeated, that "Pharaoh made his heart heavy" (Exo 9:34-35); but the continued refusal on the part of Pharaoh after the eighth and ninth (Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27) and his resolution to follow the Israelites and bring them back again, are attributed to the hardening of his heart by Jehovah (Exo 14:8, cf. Exo 14:4 and Exo 14:17). This hardening of his own heart was manifested first of all in the fact, that he paid not attention to the demand of Jehovah addressed to him through Moses, and would not let Israel go; and that not only at the commencement, so long as the Egyptian magicians imitated the signs performed by Moses and Aaron (though at the very first sign the rods of the magicians, when turned into serpents, were swallowed by Aaron's, Exo 7:12-13), but even when the magicians themselves acknowledged, "This is the finger of God" (Exo 8:19). It was also continued after the fourth and fifth plagues, when a distinction was made between the Egyptians and the Israelites, and the latter were exempted from the plagues, - a fact of which the king took care to convince himself (Exo 9:7). And it was exhibited still further in his breaking his promise, that he would let Israel go if Moses and Aaron would obtain from Jehovah the removal of the plague, and in the fact, that even after he had been obliged to confess, "I have sinned, Jehovah is the righteous one, I and my people are unrighteous" (Exo 9:27), he sinned again, as soon as breathing-time was given him, and would not let the people go (Exo 9:34-35). Thus Pharaoh would not bend his self-will to the will of God, even after he had discerned the finger of God and the omnipotence of Jehovah in the plagues suspended over him and his nation; he would not withdraw his haughty refusal, notwithstanding the fact that he was obliged to acknowledge that it was sin against Jehovah. Looked at from this side, the hardening was a fruit of sin, a consequence of that self-will, high-mindedness, and pride which flow from sin, and a continuous and ever increasing abuse of that freedom of the will which is innate in man, and which involves the possibility of obstinate resistance to the word and chastisement of God even until death. As the freedom of the will has its fixed limits in the unconditional dependence of the creature upon the Creator, so the sinner may resist the will of God as long as he lives. But such resistance plunges him into destruction, and is followed inevitably by death and damnation. God never allows any man to scoff at Him. Whoever will not suffer himself to be led, by the kindness and earnestness of the divine admonitions, to repentance and humble submission to the will of God, must inevitably perish, and by his destruction subserve the glory of God, and the manifestation of the holiness, righteousness, and omnipotence of Jehovah.

But God not only permits a man to harden himself; He also produces obduracy, and suspends this sentence over the impenitent. Not as though God took pleasure in the death of the wicked! No; God desires that the wicked should repent of his evil way and live (Eze 33:11); and He desires this most earnestly, for "He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (Ti1 2:4, cf. Pe2 3:9). As God causes His earthly sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust (Mat 5:45), so He causes His sun of grace to shine upon all sinners, to lead them to life and salvation. But as the earthly sun produces different effects upon the earth, according to the nature of the soil upon which it shines, so the influence of the divine sun of grace manifests itself in different ways upon the human heart, according to its moral condition.

(Note: "The sun, by the force of its heat, moistens the wax and dries the clay, softening the one and hardening the other; and as this produces opposite effects by the same power, so, through the long-suffering of God, which reaches to all, some receive good and others evil, some are softened and others hardened." - (Theodoret, quaest. 12 in Ex.))

The penitent permit the proofs of divine goodness and grace to lead them to repentance and salvation; but the impenitent harden themselves more and more against the grace of God, and so become ripe for the judgment of damnation. The very same manifestation of the mercy of God leads in the case of the one to salvation and life, and in that of the other to judgment and death, because he hardens himself against that mercy. In this increasing hardness on the part of the impenitent sinner against the mercy that is manifested towards him, there is accomplished the judgment of reprobation, first in God's furnishing the wicked with an opportunity of bringing fully to light the evil inclinations, desires, and thoughts that are in their hearts; and then, according to an invariable law of the moral government of the world, in His rendering the return of the impenitent sinner more and more difficult on account of his continued resistance, and eventually rendering it altogether impossible. It is the curse of sin, that it renders the hard heart harder, and less susceptible to the gracious manifestations of divine love, long-suffering, and patience. In this twofold manner God produces hardness, not only permissive but effective; i.e., not only by giving time and space for the manifestation of human opposition, even to the utmost limits of creaturely freedom, but still more by those continued manifestations of His will which drive the hard heart to such utter obduracy that it is no longer capable of returning, and so giving over the hardened sinner to the judgment of damnation. This is what we find in the case of Pharaoh. After he had hardened his heart against the revealed will of God during the first five plagues, the hardening commenced on the part of Jehovah with the sixth miracle (Exo 9:12), when the omnipotence of God was displayed with such energy that even the Egyptian magicians were covered with the boils, and could no longer stand before Moses (Exo 9:11). And yet, even after this hardening on the part of God, another opportunity was given to the wicked king to repent and change his mind, so that on two other occasions he acknowledged that his resistance was sin, and promised to submit to the will of Jehovah (Exo 9:27., Exo 10:16.). But when at length, even after the seventh plague, he broke his promise to let Israel go, and hardened his heart again as soon as the plague was removed (Exo 9:34-35), Jehovah so hardened Pharaoh's heart that he not only did not let Israel go, but threatened Moses with death if he ever came into his presence again (Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27-28). The hardening was now completed so that he necessarily fell a victim to judgment; though the very first stroke of judgment in the slaying of the first-born was an admonition to consider and return. And it was not till after he had rejected the mercy displayed in this judgment, and manifested a defiant spirit once more, in spite of the words with which he had given Moses and Aaron permission to depart, "Go, and bless me also" (Exo 12:31-32), that God completely hardened his heart, so that he pursued the Israelites with an army, and was overtaken by the judgment of utter destruction.

Now, although the hardening of Pharaoh on the part of Jehovah was only the complement of Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart, in the verse before us the former aspect alone is presented, because the principal object was not only to prepare Moses for the opposition which he would meet with from Pharaoh, but also to strengthen his weak faith, and remove at the very outset every cause for questioning and omnipotence of Jehovah. If it was by Jehovah Himself that Pharaoh was hardened, this hardening, which He not only foresaw and predicted by virtue of His omniscience, but produced and inflicted through His omnipotence, could not possibly hinder the performance of His will concerning Israel, but must rather contribute to the realization of His purposes of salvation and the manifestation of His glory (cf. Exo 9:16; Exo 10:2; Exo 14:4, Exo 14:17-18).

Exo 4:22-23

In order that Pharaoh might form a true estimate of the solemnity of the divine command, Moses was to make known to him not only the relation of Jehovah to Israel, but also the judgment to which he would be exposed if he refused to let Israel go. The relation in which Israel stood to Jehovah was expressed by God in the words, "Israel is My first-born son." Israel was Jehovah's son by virtue of his election to be the people of possession (Deu 14:1-2). This election began with the call of Abraham to be the father of the nation in which all the families of the earth were to be blessed. On the ground of this promise, which was now to be realized in the seed of Abraham by the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, the nation of Israel is already called Jehovah's "son," although it was through the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai that it was first exalted to be the people of Jehovah's possession out of all the nations (Exo 19:5-6). The divine sonship of Israel was therefore spiritual in its nature: it neither sprang from the fact that God, as the Creator of all nations, was also the Creator, or Begetter, and Father of Israel, nor was it founded, as Baumgarten supposes, upon "the physical generation of Isaac, as having its origin, not in the power of nature, but in the power of grace." The relation of God, as Creator, to man His creature, is never referred to in the Old Testament as that of a father to a son; to say nothing of the fact that the Creator of man is Elohim, and not Jehovah. Wherever Jehovah is called the Father, Begetter, or Creator of Israel (even in Deu 32:18; Jer 2:27; Isa 44:8; Mal 1:6 and Mal 2:10), the fatherhood of God relates to the election of Israel as Jehovah's people of possession. But the election upon which the υἱοθεσία of Israel was founded, is not presented in the aspect of a "begetting through the Spirit;" it is spoken of rather as acquiring or buying (קנה), making (עשׂה), founding or establishing (כּנן, Deu 32:6). Even the expressions, "the Rock that begat thee," "God that bare thee" (Deu 32:18), do not point to the idea of spiritual generation, but are to be understood as referring to the creation; just as in Psa 90:2, where Moses speaks of the mountains as "brought forth" and the earth as "born." The choosing of Israel as the son of God was an adoption flowing from the free grace of God which involved the loving, fatherly treatment of the son, and demanded obedience, reverence, and confidence towards the Father (Mal 1:6). It was this which constituted the very essence of the covenant made by Jehovah with Israel, that He treated it with mercy and love (Hos 11:1; Jer 31:9, Jer 31:20), pitied it as a father pitieth his children (Psa 103:13), chastened it on account of its sins, yet did not withdraw His mercy from it (Sa2 7:14-15; Psa 89:31-35), and trained His son to be a holy nation by the love and severity of paternal discipline. - Still Israel was not only a son, but the "first-born son" of Jehovah. In this title the calling of the heathen is implied. Israel was not to be Jehovah's only son, but simply the first-born, who was peculiarly dear to his Father, and had certain privileges above the rest. Jehovah was about to exalt Israel above all the nations of the earth (Deu 28:1). Now, if Pharaoh would not let Jehovah's first-born son depart, he would pay the penalty in the life of his own first-born (cf. Exo 12:29). In this intense earnestness of the divine command, Moses had a strong support to his faith. If Israel was Jehovah's first-born son, Jehovah could not relinquish him, but must deliver His son from the bondage of Egypt.

Exo 4:24-26

But if Moses was to carry out the divine commission with success, he must first of all prove himself to be a faithful servant of Jehovah in his own house. This he was to learn from the occurrence at the inn: an occurrence which has many obscurities on account of the brevity of the narrative, and has received many different interpretations. When Moses was on the way, Jehovah met him at the resting-place (מלון, see Gen 42:27), and sought to kill him. In what manner, is not stated: whether by a sudden seizure with some fatal disease, or, what is more probable, by some act proceeding directly from Himself, which threatened Moses with death. This hostile attitude on the part of God was occasioned by his neglect to circumcise his son; for, as soon as Zipporah cut off (circumcised) the foreskin of her son with a stone, Jehovah let him go. צור = צוּר, a rock, or stone, here a stone knife, with which, according to hereditary custom, the circumcision commanded by Joshua was also performed; not, however, because "stone knives were regarded as less dangerous than those of metal," nor because "for symbolical reasons preference was given to them, as a simple production of nature, over the metal knives that had been prepared by human hands and were applied to daily use." For if the Jews had detected any religious or symbolical meaning in stone, they would never have given it up for iron or steel, but would have retained it, like the Ethiopian tribe of the Alnaii, who used stone knives for that purpose as late as 150 years ago; whereas, in the Talmud, the use of iron or steel knives for the purpose of circumcision is spoken of, as though they were universally employed. Stone knives belong to a time anterior to the manufacture of iron or steel; and wherever they were employed at a later period, this arose from a devoted adherence to the older and simpler custom (see my Commentary on Jos 5:2). From the word "her son," it is evident that Zipporah only circumcised one of the two sons of Moses (Exo 4:20); so that the other, not doubt the elder, had already been circumcised in accordance with the law. Circumcision had been enjoined upon Abraham by Jehovah as a covenant sign for all his descendants; and the sentence of death was pronounced upon any neglect of it, as being a breach of the covenant (Gen 17:14). Although in this passage it is the uncircumcised themselves who are threatened with death, yet in the case of children the punishment fell upon the parents, and first of all upon the father, who had neglected to keep the commandment of God. Now, though Moses had probably omitted circumcision simply from regard to his Midianitish wife, who disliked this operation, he had been guilty of a capital crime, which God could not pass over in the case of one whom He had chosen to be His messenger, to establish His covenant with Israel. Hence He threatened him with death, to bring him to a consciousness of his sin, either by the voice of conscience or by some word which accompanied His attack upon Moses; and also to show him with what earnestness God demanded the keeping of His commandments. Still He did not kill him; for his sin had sprung from weakness of the flesh, from a sinful yielding to his wife, which could both be explained and excused on account of his position in the Midianite's house. That Zipporah's dislike to circumcision had been the cause of the omission, has been justly inferred by commentators from the fact, that on Jehovah's attack upon Moses, she proceeded at once to perform what had been neglected, and, as it seems, with inward repugnance. The expression, "She threw (the foreskin of her son) at his (Moses') feet," points to this (ל הגּיע, as in Isa 25:12). The suffix in רגליו (his feet) cannot refer to the son, not only because such an allusion would give no reasonable sense, but also because the suffix refers to Moses in the immediate context, both before (in המיתו, Exo 4:24) and after (in ממּנּוּ, Exo 4:26); and therefore it is simpler to refer it to Moses here. From this it follows, then, that the words, "a blood-bridegroom art thou to me," were addressed to Moses, and not to the boy. Zipporah calls Moses a blood-bridegroom, "because she had been compelled, as it were, to acquire and purchase him anew as a husband by shedding the blood of her son" (Glass). "Moses had been as good as taken from her by the deadly attack which had been made upon him. She purchased his life by the blood of her son; she received him back, as it were, from the dead, and married him anew; he was, in fact, a bridegroom of blood to her" (Kurtz). This she said, as the historian adds, after God had let Moses, go, למּוּלות, "with reference to the circumcisions." The plural is used quite generally and indefinitely, as Zipporah referred not merely to this one instance, but to circumcision generally. Moses was apparently induced by what had occurred to decide not to take his wife and children with him to Egypt, but to send them back to his father-in-law. We may infer this from the fact, that it was not till after Israel had arrived at Sinai that he brought them to him again (Exo 18:2).

Exo 4:27-31

After the removal of the sin, which had excited the threatening wrath of Jehovah, Moses once more received a token of the divine favour in the arrival of Aaron, under the direction of God, to meet him at the Mount of God (Exo 3:1). To Aaron he related all the words of Jehovah, with which He had sent (commissioned) him (שׁלח with a double accusative, as in Sa2 11:22; Jer 42:5), and all the signs which He had commanded him (צוּה also with a double accusative, as in Gen 6:22). Another proof of the favour of God consisted of the believing reception of his mission on the part of the elders and the people of Israel. "The people believed" (ויּאמן) when Aaron communicated to them the words of Jehovah to Moses, and did the signs in their presence. "And when they heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel, and had looked upon their affliction, they bowed and worshipped." (Knobel is wrong in proposing to alter ישׁמעוּ into ישׂמחוּ, according to the Sept. rendering, καὶ ἐχάρη). The faith of the people, and the worship by which their faith was expressed, proved that the promise of the fathers still lived in their hearts. And although this faith did not stand the subsequent test (Exo 5), yet, as the first expression of their feelings, it bore witness to the fact that Israel was willing to follow the call of God.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
The Lord said unto Moses - This seems to have been a second vision, whereby God calls him to the present execution of the command given before.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
In Midian - This was a new revelation, and appears to have taken place after Moses returned to his father-in-law previous to his departure for Egypt.

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²² Thus did [06213] Noah [05146]; according to all that God [0430] commanded [06680] him, so did [06213] he.

⁵ Then they said [0559] to Jeremiah [03414], The LORD [03068] be a true [0571] and faithful [0539] witness [05707] between us, if we do [06213] not even according to all things [01697] for the which the LORD [03068] thy God [0430] shall send [07971] thee to us.

²² So the messenger [04397] went [03212], and came [0935] and shewed [05046] David [01732] all that Joab [03097] had sent [07971] him for.

¹ Now Moses [04872] kept [01961] [07462] the flock [06629] of Jethro [03503] his father in law [02859], the priest [03548] of Midian [04080]: and he led [05090] the flock [06629] to the backside [0310] of the desert [04057], and came [0935] to the mountain [02022] of God [0430], even to Horeb [02722].

²⁷ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] to Aaron [0175], Go [03212] into the wilderness [04057] to meet [07125] Moses [04872]. And he went [03212], and met [06298] him in the mount [02022] of God [0430], and kissed [05401] him.
²⁸ And Moses [04872] told [05046] Aaron [0175] all the words [01697] of the LORD [03068] who had sent [07971] him, and all the signs [0226] which he had commanded [06680] him.
²⁹ And Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175] went [03212] and gathered together [0622] all the elders [02205] of the children [01121] of Israel [03478]:
³⁰ And Aaron [0175] spake [01696] all the words [01697] which the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] unto Moses [04872], and did [06213] the signs [0226] in the sight [05869] of the people [05971].
³¹ And the people [05971] believed [0539]: and when they heard [08085] that the LORD [03068] had visited [06485] the children [01121] of Israel [03478], and that he had looked [07200] upon their affliction [06040], then they bowed their heads [06915] and worshipped [07812].

² Then Jethro [03503], Moses [04872]' father in law [02859], took [03947] Zipporah [06855], Moses [04872]' wife [0802], after [0310] he had sent her back [07964],

²⁶ So he let him go [07503]: then she said [0559], A bloody [01818] husband [02860] thou art, because of the circumcision [04139].

²⁴ And it came to pass by the way [01870] in the inn [04411], that the LORD [03068] met [06298] him, and sought [01245] to kill [04191] him.

¹² And the fortress [04013] of the high fort [04869] of thy walls [02346] shall he bring down [07817], lay low [08213], and bring [05060] to the ground [0776], even to the dust [06083].

¹⁴ And the uncircumcised [06189] man child [02145] whose [0834] flesh [01320] of his foreskin [06190] is not circumcised [04135], that soul [05315] shall be cut off [03772] from his people [05971]; he hath broken [06565] my covenant [01285].

²⁰ And Moses [04872] took [03947] his wife [0802] and his sons [01121], and set [07392] them upon an ass [02543], and he returned [07725] to the land [0776] of Egypt [04714]: and Moses [04872] took [03947] the rod [04294] of God [0430] in his hand [03027].

² At that time [06256] the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Joshua [03091], Make [06213] thee sharp [06697] knives [02719], and circumcise [04135] again [07725] the children [01121] of Israel [03478] the second time [08145].

²⁷ And as one [0259] of them opened [06605] his sack [08242] to give [05414] his ass [02543] provender [04554] in the inn [04411], he espied [07200] his money [03701]; for, behold, it was in his sack's [0572] mouth [06310].

²⁴ And it came to pass by the way [01870] in the inn [04411], that the LORD [03068] met [06298] him, and sought [01245] to kill [04191] him.
²⁵ Then Zipporah [06855] took [03947] a sharp stone [06864], and cut off [03772] the foreskin [06190] of her son [01121], and cast [05060] it at his feet [07272], and said [0559], Surely a bloody [01818] husband [02860] art thou to me.
²⁶ So he let him go [07503]: then she said [0559], A bloody [01818] husband [02860] thou art, because of the circumcision [04139].

²⁹ And it came to pass, that at midnight [02677] [03915] the LORD [03068] smote [05221] all the firstborn [01060] in the land [0776] of Egypt [04714], from the firstborn [01060] of Pharaoh [06547] that sat [03427] on his throne [03678] unto the firstborn [01060] of the captive [07628] that was in the dungeon [01004] [0953]; and all the firstborn [01060] of cattle [0929].

¹ And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken [08085] diligently [08085] unto the voice [06963] of the LORD [03068] thy God [0430], to observe [08104] and to do [06213] all his commandments [04687] which I command [06680] thee this day [03117], that the LORD [03068] thy God [0430] will set [05414] thee on high [05945] above all nations [01471] of the earth [0776]:

³¹ If they break [02490] my statutes [02708], and keep [08104] not my commandments [04687];
³² Then will I visit [06485] their transgression [06588] with the rod [07626], and their iniquity [05771] with stripes [05061].
³³ Nevertheless my lovingkindness [02617] will I not utterly take [06331] from him, nor suffer my faithfulness [0530] to fail [08266].
³⁴ My covenant [01285] will I not break [02490], nor alter [08138] the thing that is gone out [04161] of my lips [08193].
³⁵ Once [0259] have I sworn [07650] by my holiness [06944] that I will not lie [03576] unto David [01732].

¹⁴ I will be his father [01], and he shall be my son [01121]. If he commit iniquity [05753], I will chasten [03198] him with the rod [07626] of men [0582], and with the stripes [05061] of the children [01121] of men [0120]:
¹⁵ But my mercy [02617] shall not depart away [05493] from him, as I took [05493] it from Saul [07586], whom I put away [05493] before [06440] thee.

¹³ Like as a father [01] pitieth [07355] his children [01121], so the LORD [03068] pitieth [07355] them that fear [03373] him.

²⁰ Is Ephraim [0669] my dear [03357] son [01121]? is he a pleasant [08191] child [03206]? for since [01767] I spake [01696] against him, I do earnestly [02142] remember [02142] him still: therefore my bowels [04578] are troubled [01993] for him; I will surely [07355] have mercy [07355] upon him, saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

⁹ They shall come [0935] with weeping [01065], and with supplications [08469] will I lead [02986] them: I will cause them to walk [03212] by the rivers [05158] of waters [04325] in a straight [03477] way [01870], wherein they shall not stumble [03782]: for I am a father [01] to Israel [03478], and Ephraim [0669] is my firstborn [01060].

¹ When Israel [03478] was a child [05288], then I loved [0157] him, and called [07121] my son [01121] out of Egypt [04714].

⁶ A son [01121] honoureth [03513] his father [01], and a servant [05650] his master [0113]: if then I be a father [01], where is mine honour [03519]? and if I be a master [0113], where is my fear [04172]? saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] unto you, O priests [03548], that despise [0959] my name [08034]. And ye say [0559], Wherein have we despised [0959] thy name [08034]?

² Before the mountains [02022] were brought forth [03205], or ever thou hadst formed [02342] the earth [0776] and the world [08398], even from everlasting [05769] to [05704] everlasting [05769], thou art God [0410].

¹⁸ Of the Rock [06697] that begat [03205] thee thou art unmindful [07876], and hast forgotten [07911] God [0410] that formed [02342] thee.

⁶ Do ye thus requite [01580] the LORD [03068], O foolish [05036] people [05971] and unwise [02450]? is not he thy father [01] that hath bought [07069] thee? hath he not made [06213] thee, and established [03559] thee?

¹⁰ Have we not all one [0259] father [01]? hath not one [0259] God [0410] created [01254] us? why do we deal treacherously [0898] every man [0376] against his brother [0251], by profaning [02490] the covenant [01285] of our fathers [01]?

⁸ Fear [06342] ye not, neither be afraid [07297] [07297]: have not I told [08085] thee from that time [0227], and have declared [05046] it? ye are even my witnesses [05707]. Is there [03426] a God [0433] beside [01107] me? yea, there is no God [06697]; I know [03045] not any.

²⁷ Saying [0559] to a stock [06086], Thou art my father [01]; and to a stone [068], Thou hast brought me forth [03205]: for they have turned [06437] their back [06203] unto me, and not their face [06440]: but in the time [06256] of their trouble [07451] they will say [0559], Arise [06965], and save [03467] us.

¹⁸ Of the Rock [06697] that begat [03205] thee thou art unmindful [07876], and hast forgotten [07911] God [0410] that formed [02342] thee.

⁵ Now therefore, if ye will obey [08085] my voice [06963] indeed [08085], and keep [08104] my covenant [01285], then ye shall be a peculiar treasure [05459] unto me above all people [05971]: for all the earth [0776] is mine:
⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom [04467] of priests [03548], and an holy [06918] nation [01471]. These are the words [01697] which thou shalt speak [01696] unto the children [01121] of Israel [03478].

¹ Ye are the children [01121] of the LORD [03068] your God [0430]: ye shall not cut [01413] yourselves, nor make [07760] any baldness [07144] between your eyes [05869] for the dead [04191].
² For thou art an holy [06918] people [05971] unto the LORD [03068] thy God [0430], and the LORD [03068] hath chosen [0977] thee to be a peculiar [05459] people [05971] unto himself, above all the nations [05971] that are upon [06440] the earth [0127].

²² And thou shalt say [0559] unto Pharaoh [06547], Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068], Israel [03478] is my son [01121], even my firstborn [01060]:
²³ And I say [0559] unto thee, Let my son [01121] go [07971], that he may serve [05647] me: and if thou refuse [03985] to let him go [07971], behold, I will slay [02026] thy son [01121], even thy firstborn [01060].

¹⁷ And I, behold, I will harden [02388] the hearts [03820] of the Egyptians [04714], and they shall follow [0935] them [0310]: and I will get me honour [03513] upon Pharaoh [06547], and upon all his host [02428], upon his chariots [07393], and upon his horsemen [06571].
¹⁸ And the Egyptians [04714] shall know [03045] that I am the LORD [03068], when I have gotten me honour [03513] upon Pharaoh [06547], upon his chariots [07393], and upon his horsemen [06571].

⁴ And I will harden [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], that he shall follow [07291] after [0310] them; and I will be honoured [03513] upon Pharaoh [06547], and upon all his host [02428]; that the Egyptians [04714] may know [03045] that I am the LORD [03068]. And they did [06213] so.

² And that thou mayest tell [05608] in the ears [0241] of thy son [01121], and of thy son's [01121] son [01121], what things I have wrought [05953] in Egypt [04714], and my signs [0226] which I have done [07760] among them; that ye may know [03045] how that I am the LORD [03068].

¹⁶ And in very [0199] deed [05668] for this cause have I raised thee up [05975], for to shew [07200] in thee my power [03581]; and that my name [08034] may be declared [05608] throughout all the earth [0776].

³¹ And he called [07121] for Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175] by night [03915], and said [0559], Rise up [06965], and get you forth [03318] from among [08432] my people [05971], both ye and the children [01121] of Israel [03478]; and go [03212], serve [05647] the LORD [03068], as ye have said [01696].
³² Also take [03947] your flocks [06629] and your herds [01241], as ye have said [01696], and be gone [03212]; and bless [01288] me also.

²⁷ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], and he would [014] not let them go [07971].
²⁸ And Pharaoh [06547] said [0559] unto him, Get [03212] thee from me, take heed [08104] to thyself, see [07200] my face [06440] no more [03254]; for in that day [03117] thou seest [07200] my face [06440] thou shalt die [04191].

²⁰ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], so that he would not let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go [07971].

³⁴ And when Pharaoh [06547] saw [07200] that the rain [04306] and the hail [01259] and the thunders [06963] were ceased [02308], he sinned [02398] yet more [03254], and hardened [03513] his heart [03820], he and his servants [05650].
³⁵ And the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547] was hardened [02388], neither would he let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go [07971]; as the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] by [03027] Moses [04872].

¹⁶ Then Pharaoh [06547] called [07121] for Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175] in haste [04116]; and he said [0559], I have sinned [02398] against the LORD [03068] your God [0430], and against you.

²⁷ And Pharaoh [06547] sent [07971], and called [07121] for Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175], and said [0559] unto them, I have sinned [02398] this time [06471]: the LORD [03068] is righteous [06662], and I and my people [05971] are wicked [07563].

¹¹ And the magicians [02748] could [03201] not stand [05975] before [06440] Moses [04872] because [06440] of the boils [07822]; for the boil [07822] was upon the magicians [02748], and upon all the Egyptians [04714].

¹² And the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547], and he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] unto Moses [04872].

⁴⁵ That [3704] ye may be [1096] the children [5207] of your [5216] Father [3962] which [3588] is in [1722] heaven [3772]: for [3754] he maketh [393] his [846] sun [2246] to rise [393] on [1909] the evil [4190] and [2532] on the good [18], and [2532] sendeth rain [1026] on [1909] the just [1342] and [2532] on the unjust [94].

⁹ The Lord [2962] is [1019] not [3756] slack [1019] concerning his promise [1860], as [5613] some men [5100] count [2233] slackness [1022]; but [235] is longsuffering [3114] to [1519] us-ward [2248], not [3361] willing [1014] that any [5100] should perish [622], but [235] that all [3956] should come [5562] to [1519] repentance [3341].

⁴ Who [3739] will have [2309] all [3956] men [444] to be saved [4982], and [2532] to come [2064] unto [1519] the knowledge [1922] of the truth [225].

¹¹ Say [0559] unto them, As I live [02416], saith [05002] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069], I have no pleasure [02654] in the death [04194] of the wicked [07563]; but that the wicked [07563] turn [07725] from his way [01870] and live [02421]: turn [07725] ye, turn [07725] ye from your evil [07451] ways [01870]; for why will ye die [04191], O house [01004] of Israel [03478]?

⁷ And Pharaoh [06547] sent [07971], and, behold, there was not one [0259] of the cattle [04735] of the Israelites [03478] dead [04191]. And the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547] was hardened [03513], and he did not let the people [05971] go [07971].

¹⁹ Then the magicians [02748] said [0559] unto Pharaoh [06547], This is the finger [0676] of God [0430]: and Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820] was hardened [02388], and he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

¹² For they cast down [07993] every man [0376] his rod [04294], and they became serpents [08577]: but Aaron's [0175] rod [04294] swallowed up [01104] their rods [04294].
¹³ And he hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], that he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

⁸ And the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714], and he pursued [07291] after [0310] the children [01121] of Israel [03478]: and the children [01121] of Israel [03478] went out [03318] with an high [07311] hand [03027].

²⁷ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], and he would [014] not let them go [07971].

²⁰ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], so that he would not let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go [07971].

¹² And the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547], and he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] unto Moses [04872].

²⁸ And Pharaoh [06547] said [0559], I will let you go [07971], that ye may sacrifice [02076] to the LORD [03068] your God [0430] in the wilderness [04057]; only ye shall not go [03212] very [07368] far away [07368]: intreat [06279] for me [01157].

¹⁵ But when Pharaoh [06547] saw [07200] that there was respite [07309], he hardened [03513] his heart [03820], and hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

⁸ Then Pharaoh [06547] called [07121] for Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175], and said [0559], Intreat [06279] the LORD [03068], that he may take away [05493] the frogs [06854] from me, and from my people [05971]; and I will let the people [05971] go [07971], that they may do sacrifice [02076] unto the LORD [03068].

²² And the magicians [02748] of Egypt [04714] did [06213] so with their enchantments [03909]: and Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820] was hardened [02388], neither did he hearken [08085] unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

¹³ And he hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], that he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].
¹⁴ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820] is hardened [03515], he refuseth [03985] to let the people [05971] go [07971].

¹⁵ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh [06547] would hardly [07185] let us go [07971], that the LORD [03068] slew [02026] all the firstborn [01060] in the land [0776] of Egypt [04714], both the firstborn [01060] of man [0120], and the firstborn [01060] of beast [0929]: therefore I sacrifice [02076] to the LORD [03068] all that openeth [06363] the matrix [07358], being males [02145]; but all the firstborn [01060] of my children [01121] I redeem [06299].

¹¹ And the frogs [06854] shall depart [05493] from thee, and from thy houses [01004], and from thy servants [05650], and from thy people [05971]; they shall remain [07604] in the river [02975] only.

¹⁴ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820] is hardened [03515], he refuseth [03985] to let the people [05971] go [07971].

³⁵ And the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547] was hardened [02388], neither would he let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go [07971]; as the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] by [03027] Moses [04872].

¹⁵ But when Pharaoh [06547] saw [07200] that there was respite [07309], he hardened [03513] his heart [03820], and hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

¹³ And he hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], that he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had said [01696].

¹⁰ And Moses [04872] and Aaron [0175] did [06213] all these wonders [04159] before [06440] Pharaoh [06547]: and the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], so that he would not let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go out [07971] of his land [0776].

²⁷ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], and he would [014] not let them go [07971].

²⁰ But the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], so that he would not let the children [01121] of Israel [03478] go [07971].

¹² And the LORD [03068] hardened [02388] the heart [03820] of Pharaoh [06547], and he hearkened [08085] not unto them; as the LORD [03068] had spoken [01696] unto Moses [04872].

¹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], Go [0935] in unto Pharaoh [06547]: for I have hardened [03513] his heart [03820], and the heart [03820] of his servants [05650], that I might shew [07896] these my signs [0226] before [07130] him:

³ And I will harden [07185] Pharaoh's [06547] heart [03820], and multiply [07235] my signs [0226] and my wonders [04159] in the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].

² And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto him, What is that in thine hand [03027]? And he said [0559], A rod [04294].
³ And he said [0559], Cast [07993] it on the ground [0776]. And he cast [07993] it on the ground [0776], and it became a serpent [05175]; and Moses [04872] fled [05127] from before [06440] it.
⁴ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], Put forth [07971] thine hand [03027], and take [0270] it by the tail [02180]. And he put forth [07971] his hand [03027], and caught [02388] it, and it became a rod [04294] in his hand [03709]:
⁵ That they may believe [0539] that the LORD [03068] God [0430] of their fathers [01], the God [0430] of Abraham [085], the God [0430] of Isaac [03327], and the God [0430] of Jacob [03290], hath appeared [07200] unto thee.
⁶ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] furthermore [05750] unto him, Put [0935] now thine hand [03027] into thy bosom [02436]. And he put [0935] his hand [03027] into his bosom [02436]: and when he took [03318] it out, behold, his hand [03027] was leprous [06879] as snow [07950].
⁷ And he said [0559], Put [07725] thine hand [03027] into thy bosom [02436] again [07725]. And he put [07725] his hand [03027] into his bosom [02436] again [07725]; and plucked [03318] it out of his bosom [02436], and, behold, it was turned again [07725] as his other flesh [01320].
⁸ And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe [0539] thee, neither hearken [08085] to the voice [06963] of the first [07223] sign [0226], that they will believe [0539] the voice [06963] of the latter [0314] sign [0226].
⁹ And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe [0539] also these two [08147] signs [0226], neither hearken [08085] unto thy voice [06963], that thou shalt take [03947] of the water [04325] of the river [02975], and pour [08210] it upon the dry [03004] land: and the water [04325] which thou takest [03947] out of the river [02975] shall become blood [01818] upon the dry [03006] land.

¹⁹ The great [01419] temptations [04531] which thine eyes [05869] saw [07200], and the signs [0226], and the wonders [04159], and the mighty [02389] hand [03027], and the stretched out [05186] arm [02220], whereby the LORD [03068] thy God [0430] brought thee out [03318]: so shall the LORD [03068] thy God [0430] do [06213] unto all the people [05971] of whom thou art afraid [03373] [06440].

²² And the LORD [03068] shewed [05414] signs [0226] and wonders [04159], great [01419] and sore [07451], upon Egypt [04714], upon Pharaoh [06547], and upon all his household [01004], before our eyes [05869]:

³⁴ Or hath God [0430] assayed [05254] to go [0935] and take [03947] him a nation [01471] from the midst [07130] of another nation [01471], by temptations [04531], by signs [0226], and by wonders [04159], and by war [04421], and by a mighty [02389] hand [03027], and by a stretched out [05186] arm [02220], and by great [01419] terrors [04172], according to all that the LORD [03068] your God [0430] did [06213] for you in Egypt [04714] before your eyes [05869]?

²¹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], When thou goest [03212] to return [07725] into Egypt [04714], see [07200] that thou do [06213] all those wonders [04159] before [06440] Pharaoh [06547], which I have put [07760] in thine hand [03027]: but I will harden [02388] his heart [03820], that he shall not let the people [05971] go [07971].

¹⁷ And thou shalt take [03947] this rod [04294] in thine hand [03027], wherewith thou shalt do [06213] signs [0226].

²⁵ Then Zipporah [06855] took [03947] a sharp stone [06864], and cut off [03772] the foreskin [06190] of her son [01121], and cast [05060] it at his feet [07272], and said [0559], Surely a bloody [01818] husband [02860] art thou to me.

²² And she bare [03205] him a son [01121], and he called [07121] his name [08034] Gershom [01647]: for he said [0559], I have been a stranger [01616] in a strange [05237] land [0776].

¹⁸ And Moses [04872] went [03212] and returned [07725] to Jethro [03500] his father in law [02859], and said [0559] unto him, Let me go [03212], I pray thee, and return [07725] unto my brethren [0251] which are in Egypt [04714], and see [07200] whether they be yet [05750] alive [02416]. And Jethro [03503] said [0559] to Moses [04872], Go [03212] in peace [07965].

¹⁹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872] in Midian [04080], Go [03212], return [07725] into Egypt [04714]: for all the men [0582] are dead [04191] which sought [01245] thy life [05315].
²⁰ And Moses [04872] took [03947] his wife [0802] and his sons [01121], and set [07392] them upon an ass [02543], and he returned [07725] to the land [0776] of Egypt [04714]: and Moses [04872] took [03947] the rod [04294] of God [0430] in his hand [03027].
²¹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], When thou goest [03212] to return [07725] into Egypt [04714], see [07200] that thou do [06213] all those wonders [04159] before [06440] Pharaoh [06547], which I have put [07760] in thine hand [03027]: but I will harden [02388] his heart [03820], that he shall not let the people [05971] go [07971].
²² And thou shalt say [0559] unto Pharaoh [06547], Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068], Israel [03478] is my son [01121], even my firstborn [01060]:
²³ And I say [0559] unto thee, Let my son [01121] go [07971], that he may serve [05647] me: and if thou refuse [03985] to let him go [07971], behold, I will slay [02026] thy son [01121], even thy firstborn [01060].